Karen continues move toward northern Gulf Coast

October 5th, 2013

Pedro Phillips takes his boat up and down the bayou helping his neighbors get ready, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013 in Grand Bayou, La., which is a fishing community accessible only by boat,. If it gets rough, he says he’ll move to his shrimp boat, in the background, where he’ll have electricity, food and the ability to stay above the water. (AP Photo/The Times-Picayune, Ted Jackson) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; USA TODAY OUT; THE BATON ROUGE ADVOCATE OUT

Pedro Phillips takes his boat up and down the bayou helping his neighbors get ready, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013 in Grand Bayou, La., which is a fishing community accessible only by boat,. If it gets rough, he says he’ll move to his shrimp boat, in the background, where he’ll have electricity, food and the ability to stay above the water. (AP Photo/The Times-Picayune, Ted Jackson) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; USA TODAY OUT; THE BATON ROUGE ADVOCATE OUT

A surfer enjoys some of the big waves kicked up by the approach of Tropical Storm Karen at Pensacola Beach Friday, Oct. 4, 2013, in Pensacola, Fla. Karen would be the second named storm of a quiet hurricane season to make landfall in the U.S. â€” the first since Tropical Storm Andrea hit Florida in June. Along with strong winds, the storm was forecast to produce rainfall of 3 to 6 inches through Sunday night. Isolated rain totals of up to 10 inches were possible. (AP Photo/The Pensacola News Journal, Bruce Graner) NO SALES

This NOAA satellite image taken Friday, Oct. 4, 2013 at 1:45 a.m. EDT shows Tropical Storm Karen in the Gulf of Mexico tracking northward with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. A low pressure system is tracking across the central United States with showers and thunderstorms into the Mid West. Areas of showers extend into the Great Lakes. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

With the help of his friends, Daniel Larsen stretches to close a storm shutter at his home in Myrtle Grove, La., in preparation for Tropical Storm Karen, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. Holding the laser for him is Jace Eschete, who said it looked like they were in the worst possible path, but the best possible strength. (AP Photo/The Times-Picayune, Ted Jackson) MAGS OUT; NO SALES; USA TODAY OUT; THE BATON ROUGE ADVOCATE OUT

C.J. Johnson pulls a shrimp boat out of the water, in anticipation of Tropical Storm Karen, at Myrtle Grove Marina in Plaquemines Parish, La., Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. National Hurricane Center forecasters expect Karen to be near the central Gulf Coast on Saturday as a weak hurricane or tropical storm. Along with strong winds, the storm was expected to produce rainfall of 3 to 6 inches through Sunday night, with isolated totals up to 10 inches possible. Forecast tracks showed it possibly brushing, or crossing, the southeast Louisiana coast before veering eastward toward south Alabama and the Florida panhandle. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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BRAITHWAITE, La. (AP) â€” Tropical Storm Karen continued chugging toward the northern Gulf Coast on Saturday, with forecasters predicting rain, potential flooding and a decrease in speed later in the day.

The National Hurricane Center reported early Saturday that Karen’s maximum sustained winds had dropped to 40 mph, making it a weak tropical storm. It was moving north at 10 mph (16 kph), and center forecasters said in their advisory that they expect Karen to decrease in speed later Saturday and turn toward the northeast.

A tropical storm warning is in effect from Morgan City to the mouth of the Pearl River, which forms part of the border between Louisiana and Mississippi. A tropical storm watch covers the New Orleans area and a stretch from east of the Pearl River’s mouth to Indian Pass, Fla.

Forecasters expect the storm’s center to be in the warning area Saturday night or Sunday morning, and they note that an increase in speed is possible Sunday. Rain accumulations of 1 to 3 inches over the central Gulf Coast and southeastern U.S. are possible through Monday night, with isolated totals up to 6 inches.

At the hurricane center in Miami, forecasters said the storm no longer had a chance of strengthening into a hurricane.

Karen began losing some of its punch late Friday, after a busy day of preparations along the Gulf Coast for the storm. Karen is a late-arriving worry in what had been a slow hurricane season in the U.S. Karen would be the second named storm to make landfall in the U.S. â€” the first since Tropical Storm Andrea hit Florida in June.

Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida had each declared a state of emergency as of Friday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Interior Department recalled workers, furloughed because of the government shutdown, to deal with the storm and help state and local agencies.

And in low-lying areas of southeast Louisiana, pickups hauling boat trailers and flatbed trucks laden with crab traps evacuated. Officials in Plaquemines Parish, La., an area inundated last year by slow-moving Hurricane Isaac in 2012, ordered mandatory evacuations Friday, mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River. The parish, home to oil field service businesses and fishing marinas, juts out into the Gulf of Mexico from the state’s southeastern tip.

Guy Laigast, head of emergency operations in the parish, noted an earlier forecast with a westward tick. “The jog to the west has got us concerned that wind will be piling water on the east bank levees,” he said. Overtopping was not expected, but the evacuations were ordered as a precaution, he said.

Evacuations also were ordered on Grand Isle, a barrier island community where the only route out is a single flood-prone highway, and in coastal Lafourche Parish.

Traffic at the mouth of the Mississippi River was stopped Friday in advance of the storm, and passengers aboard two Carnival Cruise ships bound for weekend arrivals in New Orleans were told they may not arrive until Monday.

In New Orleans, Sheriff Marlin Gusman announced that he had moved more than 400 inmates from temporary tent facilities to safer state lockups as a precaution. Mayor Mitch Landrieu said a city emergency operations center would begin around-the-clock operations Friday evening.

In the Plaquemines Parish town of Braithwaite, swamped last year by Isaac, Blake Miller and others hauled paintings and valuables to the upper floor of the plantation home he owns.

“We came out to move the antique furniture upstairs, board up the shutters, get ready. We don’t know for what, we hope not much, but we have to be ready,” Miller said.

“I’m not expecting another Isaac, but we could get some water, so I’m moving what I can,” said Larry Bartron, a fisherman who stowed nets and fishing gear in his 26-foot fishing boat, which he planned to move inside the levee system.

Along the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida coasts, officials urged caution. Workers moved lifeguard stands to higher ground in Alabama and Florida. But there were few signs of concern among visitors to Florida’s Pensacola Beach, where visitors frolicked in the surf beneath a pier and local surfer Stephen Benz took advantage of big waves.

“There is probably about 30 days a year that are really good and you really have to watch the weather, have the availability and be able to jump at a moment’s notice,” Benz said.

Surfers took advantage of the waves at Dauphin Island, Ala., as well. And, across Mobile Bay, pastor Chris Fowler said the surf at Orange Beach was unusually large but didn’t appear to be eroding the white sand.

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